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Savoy owner in talks to buy Le Meridien assets

THE American private-equity group that owns London’s Savoy hotel group, Blackstone, has teamed up with Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, to buy the continental hotels owned by Le Meridien, the troubled international hotelier.

The consortium has made an approach to Le Meridien’s 14-strong senior bank syndicate, which is owed about £740m. Lehman is one of the biggest holders of Le Meridien’s mezzanine debt and faces a substantial write-off on the value of its interest.

The offer from Blackstone and Lehman is one of three solutions that have been proposed to solve Le Meridien’s debt crisis. The hotel group has to meet a quarterly rent bill from its biggest landlord, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), by the end of this month and the company is keen to draw a line under its recent troubles.

RBS, which owns Le Meridien’s top London hotels, including Grosvenor House and the Waldorf, is thought to